RICHMOND, Va. – Three members of a Midlothian, Virginia family were sentenced to prison after they were convicted of holding a woman captive in their home for more than a decade.
Zahida Aman, 80, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Mohammed Rehan Chaudhri, 48, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Mohammad Nauman Chaudhri, 55, was sentenced to five years in prison.
"[They were] sentenced for conspiracy to commit forced labor for compelling the domestic labor of a Pakistani woman for 12 years," a statement from the U.S. Justice Department said. "The Court ordered Aman and Rehan Chaudhri to pay the victim approximately $250,000 in restitution for back wages and other financial losses she incurred as a result of the defendants’ criminal conduct."
WTVR CBS 6 has been reporting on this case since 2019.
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3 accused of holding woman captive in Midlothian home for 12 years
Federal officials said the victim, a native of Pakistan, was related to the men by marriage. They said that for 12 years, the men essentially abused her in their London Park Drive home.
"The victim married Aman’s son, and the brother of defendants Nauman and Rehan Chaudhri," the statement read. "She lived in the home of the defendants. Over the next 12 years, the three defendants forced her to perform domestic services. To coerce that labor, the defendants verbally assaulted and physically abused the victim. The defendants slapped, kicked, and pushed the victim, even beat her with wooden board, and, on one occasion, hog-tied her hands and feet and dragged her down the stairs in front of her children."
The men also took her immigration documents and threatened to have her deported if she disobeyed them, investigators said.
The abuse occurred between March 2002 and August 2014.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
